The progressive forces in European Christianity have another idol, Bishop Sunniva Gilver of Oslo. The episcopal consecration of the spiritual leader of the Lutherans of the Norwegian capital took place recently in the presence of King Harald V. Until 1969, the Church of Norway had the status of a state church.
Gilver, of course, has her detractors. They are outraged by the appearance of a church minister: the new metropolitan bishop wears dreadlocks and she has piercings. The fact that she practiced yoga right in the temple also causes dissatisfaction.
The last time Gilver conducted a meditation consisting of asanas (poses) and stretches, which she calls a yoga mass, was on the eve of her own ordination at Fagerborg Church in Oslo, where she had been a parish priest for many years. Dressed in a black T–shirt with the word “pastor” and tight trousers, Gilver invited her parishioners to relax as much as possible before reciting the prayer “Our Father” – the most important for Christians of different faiths.
Being a qualified yoga instructor, Sunniva Gilver believes that Eastern practices do not contradict either classical Christianity or its new forms. “I realized that for many people yoga is the main way to relax, stay in peace and quiet, take a break and truly accept something more than yourself. Religion and God are invisible in a secularized society,” she said in an interview.
Very few details are known from Gilver’s biography. She was born in 1967 in Denmark and grew up in Norway. She graduated from the Theological University in Oslo. She was a columnist in national newspapers and magazines. She has published two books, “Open Sky” (2000) and “Sundays with Sunniva” (2009).
While serving as a pastor, she constantly wore two crosses. Sunniva explained this oddity by the fact that she often meets people who need faith and hope, and then gives them one of the crosses that hang around her neck. Now that she has become a bishop, she can sometimes even be seen with three Christian symbols, because the gilded bishop’s cross has been added.
As Gilver said in various interviews, her faith was tested several times: when her younger sister died as a child, and in 2017, when she herself was in a car accident and almost died, and in 2021, when after 30 years of marriage she lost her husband, who died due to cancer. Moreover, the spouse, as well as two of the three children of Sunnis– are atheists.
However, at some point she learned how to cope with spiritual crises. “God is here, amidst suffering, pain and torment, and he himself has felt them in the flesh. So now, when things like this happen to me, I just tell myself that it’s my turn to go through with it,” says the bishop.
For the first time, Sunni Gilver was mentioned in Norway in 2006, when she performed in one of the mosques in Oslo. The step at that time was very bold: a Christian woman, and even a cleric, entered a Muslim prayer house in a year when the country had strained relations with the Islamic community. In January of that year, the national newspaper Magazinet reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that had previously been published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. This caused a massive international scandal. Some Arab countries have announced a boycott of Norway and Denmark. Showing solidarity with the neighbors on the continent, the scandalous drawings were also published by French, German, Spanish, Belgian newspapers, as well as daily editions of Great Britain, Italy, Iceland, Switzerland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland.
“Spreading the gospel in the church and society is one of the most important things I have done as a priest over the past 30 years. Now I’m looking forward to doing this in my new role as bishop,” Gilver said on the eve of her ordination. Many expected that, having received a high pulpit, she would distance herself from the people, but this did not happen. Sunniva has abandoned the large house that serves as the official residence of the Bishop of Oslo, and continues to live in her small office studio apartment with an area of just over 30 square meters, travels by public transport and personally maintains accounts on social networks. There, she most often writes not about her work, but about everyday life, raising a Jack Russell Terrier dog named Millie, and communicating with her elderly mother. “In this difficult world, the church should be like a mosquito, so small and a little annoying, but always reminding of itself. As a bishop, I’m not going to tell you that you have to do this or that. I try to live my life in a way that inspires and challenges, but also reminds me of grace,” Sunniva said.
Recently, she has changed from a black T–shirt with the inscription “pastor” to a similar one, but in a crimson (bishop) color with a “bishop” print. At the same time, the general style of clothing remained the same: all the same sports sweatshirts and trousers during off-duty hours. “If we all had to dress very modestly or wear gray suits, it would also say a lot about God. I think we need to better represent and show the diversity that exists within Christian communities,” she said. Today, Sunniva increasingly calls her dog Bispebisk, which can be translated from Norwegian as “bishop”. To confirm the new “status” of the dog, the woman put a crimson collar on Millie, which she did not fail to report on social networks. By the way, Millie used to often visit the church where her mistress served and run freely around the altar part of the temple.
Despite the fact that Sunniva Gilver is perceived in Norway as a person who is changing the church, bringing it closer to the people, there are critics of this trend. For example, the leader of the youth branch of the Conservative Party, Ola Svenneby, stated that “today, attending a church service in a cathedral or any other church in Oslo is more like a meeting of members of the Socialist Left Party.”
“We live in a time of troubles, in a beautiful and terrible world. In an increasingly polarized public discourse, it’s easy to shut up or engage in trolling, as well as lose trust in everything and everyone. But as a church, we are called to something completely different. As believers, we are called to believe, hope and fight,” Gilver said in her first episcopal sermon.
She replaced Kari Weiteberg, who has been Bishop of Oslo since 2017. However, in December 2024, Weiteberg joined a charitable organization that provides social and spiritual care for the seriously ill, drug addicts, children and women who have been subjected to violence. The former bishop now also serves as a simple pastor on the Oslo campus. n
